Climate Change FAQ

Not at all. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists, the experts in their field, have reached a consensus that climate change is real and is human-caused.

Haven’t polar bears faced warmer times in the past and survived?

Polar bears never have faced periods as warm as we could see in the next 50 years. There have been warmer periods in the past, but they were not only cooler than what we will experience if we don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they were part of natural cycles of warming and cooling. These cycles were driven mainly by the variations in the earth’s orbit around the sun and by events like massive volcanic eruptions. The current warming is not part of a cycle, and there can be no cooling unless humans take action.

Aren’t there more polar bears now than ever?

We have never had firm numbers on the global population of polar bears. We do know that some polar bear populations, like those that I studied in Alaska for 30 years, were known to have grown after excessive hunting was controlled in the early 1970s. But we only recently have developed estimates of several populations and still have no estimates for others. Regardless of how many bears may have been around at times past, however, as long as temperatures warm and sea ice habitat continues to decline, polar bears ultimately can only decline. Wild polar bears will become extinct unless we take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact Us

Polar Bears International—US

PO Box 3008

Bozeman, MT 59772

Polar Bears International—Canada

PO Box 4052, 1155 Main Street, Station B

Winnipeg, MB R2W 5K8

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